Personal care compositions such as solid soaps are of course well known. Toilet soaps in bar form are usually formulated with a variety of additives to provide benefits that are not inherent in the soap itself. Additives may be employed to, for example, enhance the lathering of the soap, to enhance the mildness of the soap, or to enhance its antibacterial effectiveness. Additionally, various additives, such as talc, may be employed to reduce cost and provide various benefits to the user.
Commercial soap bars conventionally comprise one or more “soaps,” which, for purposes of describing this component of the compositions of the present invention, have the meaning as normally understood in the art monovalent salts of monocarboxylic fatty acids. The counterions of the salts generally include sodium, potassium, ammonium and alkanol ammonium ions, but may include other suitable ions known in the art. The soap bars may also include optional adjuvant ingredients such as moisturizers, humectants, antibacterials, water, fillers, polymers, dyes, and fragrances.
Typically, the soap components in conventional soap bars comprise salts of long chain fatty acids having chain links of the alkyl group of the fatty acids from about 8 carbon atoms, to about 20 carbon atoms in length. The particular length of the alkyl chain of the soaps is selected for various reasons including cleansing capability, lather capability, and cost.
As previously mentioned, talc is one agent that provides various user benefits. For example, talc imparts increased lather and improved skin feel to a user when it is employed in a bar of soap. Furthermore, since talc is a useful and inexpensive filler it decreases the cost of manufacturing soap bars while providing such user benefits. Enhancing these benefits in a cost-effective manner is an aim for soap companies.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need for optimizing bar soap formulations in terms of their user benefits such as skin feel and the amount of lather generated while washing with a typical amount of soap. In addition, it is desirable to provide such benefits with as little expense as possible. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.